Thursday, August 12, 2010

Did You Hear About That Little Girl?

I don’t watch “Reality TV” unless it is a news program. That’s about as real as it gets for me. No, when I switch on the tube it is either to watch (or listen to) the news or to escape from what I just watched (or listened to).

So I was probably the last person on the planet to hear about that kid, that little skinny 10 year old girl with the voice of a professional mezzo-soprano (I think) sing a selection from Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi, “O Mio Babbino Caro.”

In Italian, naturally.

Well, yes, I heard about it the next day, Wednesday, but it really didn’t come under my radar until today when they kept mentioning it on MSNBC while I was waiting for them to announce whether Judge Walker was going to lift his self-imposed Proposition 8 stay. So there was a lull in the day and I heard the performance was on You Tube, so I took a look.

This is what I saw:


Now the really awful thing about how the media is hyping this girl’s performance is by calling her “America’s Answer to Susan Boyle.” There really isn’t any comparison at all. The surprise in Boyle’s case is how the voice of an angel can come from the mouth of everyone’s maiden aunt. Little Jackie has been singing for only 2 years.

No, if we are to do this little girl any justice at all, perhaps we should all remember another child prodigy who recently passed. In reality, Jackie Evancho is the next Beverly Sills.

Here is Beverly Sills performing – at the tender age of 8 years.

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